20/06/2016
Government has put in place stringent regulations
meant to control the importation of goods that are
available locally.
The regulations were gazetted
under Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 yesterday
by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. The
goods that have been literally banned include..
coffee creamers (Cremora), Camphor creams,
white petroleum jellies and body creams.
Goods categorised as builders ware like
wheelbarrows (flat pan and concrete pan
wheelbarrows), structures and parts of structures
of iron or steel (bridges and bridges section, lock
gates, towers, lattice masts, roofs, roofing
frameworks, doors, windows and their frames and
threshold for doors, shutters, balustrade, pillars
and columns) and plates, rods, angles, shapes
section and tubes prepared for use in structures of
iron and steel ware, are also on the list of the
restricted products.
The SI also controls the importation of plastic pipes
and fittings, flat-rolled products of iron or non-
alloy steel (of a width of 600mm or more), clad
plated or coated and corrugated steel roofing
sheets.
The long list also includes furniture, baked beans
and potato crisps, cereals, bottled water,
mayonnaise, salad cream, peanut butter, jams,
maheu, canned fruits and vegetables, pizza base,
yoghurts, flavoured milks, dairy juice blends, ice-
creams, cultured milk and cheese.
Importation of second-hand tyres (all re-treaded
or used pneumatic tyres of rubber), baler and
binder twine, fertilizers (urea and ammonium
nitrate), compounds and blends, tile adhesive and
tylon, shoe polish, synthetic hair products are also
in the list of products whose importation has been
banned.
The list further includes the following..
flash doors,
beds, wardrobes, dining room suites, office
furniture and tissue wading. Woven fabrics of
cotton (containing 85 percent or more by weight of
cotton, weighing not more than 200g per square
metre classified under the headings 5208 and 5209
of the customs tariff) have also been banned.
Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha said
the move was meant to support our local
industry.
The Buy Zimbabwe campaign held a
summit in June last year aimed at promoting the
purchase of local products and services saying this
would enable local businesses to grow, thereby
encouraging economic growth and job creation.
“Buying locally manufactured goods – whether it
involves purchasing machinery worth millions or even
just a T-shirt – begins a cycle in which you re-
invest money into the local economy, instead of
spending it on an imported product and sending the
money outbound.
“Spending your money on a Zimbabwean product
means you also help keep the worker who made that
product in their job. When you buy local you help
create jobs and, in turn, help alleviate poverty,”
said Buy Zimbabwe economist Ms Vandudzai
Zirebwa.
Source: Herald Zimbabwe
